2011/12 Soccer Thread - Because Vacations Are For Cowards

I don't think she'll catch a lot of flack. She wasn't at fault for either of Japan's goals, our creaky defense was. There are going to be "choke!" articles, for sure, but they should be targeted at, in order:

1.) Pia Sundhage, for sending the team into a shell after each goal
2.) The defense, for some hellaciously bad defending
3.) The first three penalty takers

On the upside, we're not Brazil.

Looks like it's goodbye to Carlitos after all. I'm sure this time at Corinthians won't be anything like last time. (I'm assuming you all can read the deep, deep sarcasm here, right?)

I'll wait and see if the Tevez deal gets done - after all, surely he won't hang out for the full whack if he's nearer home, eh ?

And no, Carlos, you don't get a f**king loyalty bonus.

If you check out the Brazil PK video though, you can see that the turf actually is in a completely crappy condition. Obviously, both teams had to deal with the problem, but it does explain why two of the players hammered the ball over the goal so clearly. Just check it out: As soon as the players are about to shoot and put their full weight on the leg they're standing on, a small patch of gras gets loosened, thus slightly changing the position of the ball upwards. Anyone who has ever played soccer knows what the result is. This can be clearly seen in at least two cases. Turf shouldn't be that loose.

After the first kick, that shouldn't be a problem - it wasn't for the Paraguayan players. As the commentator said on ESPN, you avoid it by thumping it.

davet010 wrote:

After the first kick, that shouldn't be a problem - it wasn't for the Paraguayan players. As the commentator said on ESPN, you avoid it by thumping it.

I agree. Not letting Brazil off the hook.

Going to make an effort to catch the rest of the tournament.

Season really isnt that far away so hopefully the rest of the transfers start falling into place.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14173261.stm

AKA - Corinthians haven't got the money, have tried to force City to do a deal by Wed and now had their bluff called.

I hope Kia Joorabchian flies his own plane...wouldn't want anyone else to get injured in the catastrophic fireball I constantly wish on him.

I agree with Pred, and I hope (no pun intended) we have a healthy Hope Solo in goal in next year's Olympic games.

davet010 wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14173261.stm

AKA - Corinthians haven't got the money, have tried to force City to do a deal by Wed and now had their bluff called.

I hope Kia Joorabchian flies his own plane...wouldn't want anyone else to get injured in the catastrophic fireball I constantly wish on him.

"Deal" dead.

Corinthians - 'We want to have the player by the end of today, but have not organised a bank guarantee, no proof of TV contract and we didn't realise you'd want the first tranche of the fee now, not in 2012."

City - 'Bye then.'

Well, Venezuela missed the chance of getting to the Copa final, *lost* to Paraguay on penalty shootouts. We didn't lose a single game on the cup, Paraguay, on the other hand, reaches the final without a single victory, so yeah, that blows. Next match for third place will be on saturday against Perú, hopefully we'll end with a victory and coatshine our most succesfull Copa America ever.

In the mean time, Argentina and Brazil are watching us play from home, which is nice for a change.

What the hell was going on at the end ?

davet010 wrote:

What the hell was going on at the end ?

Apparently some Paraguayans federation *officers* started to heckle some of our players after the penalties, all this after having pulled some really low level crap during the game, if you saw it you may remember an offense without ball a paraguayan player did to one of our strikers in the extended time, they also tried to provoke us into violence when it was clear we had the upper hand in stamina and they had lost a player due to a double yellow. Some people take reaching the final seriously I guess. We played much better, had a goal annulled on offside in the first half, and 3 or 4 close calls that either stroke the poles? or our strikers didn't took advantage of. We leave with our head waaaaay up high, without defeat and having enjoyed the "starring" role for the first time on this level.

Saw this story over at the Granuidad today, and was immediately interested. I'll have to see if I can finagle the book on this side of the Atlantic. What's your thoughts Dave, seeing that Paul Lake's a life-long Blue?

Pre-ordered already

Paul Lake was a talent who could have played anywhere - City utilised him in midfield in the late 80s, then in the 89/90 season moved him to sweeper, where he was an utter revelation. A bit of a reach perhaps, but people in the know at the time were comparing him to Franz Beckenbauer.

Extremely unlucky with injuries. I was at a game (88/89 season against Leicester, from memory) where Lake swallowed his tongue after a mid-air collision and ended up going into convulsions on the pitch, and only the swift intervention of City's doctor saved his life. To say that the stadium went quiet would be an understatement. I was also at the game (90/91 against Villa) when his ligament first went, and followed his attempts at rehab. He came back in 93 and only lasted a game and a half, and the fact that City lost the game was an irrelevance.

His loss in 90 was the first step in the downturn of the team, as the promising home-grown generation of White, Brightwell, Moulden etc fell away, but to my generation of Blues he's the great 'could have been'.

Shame that Corinthians didn't have the money for Tevez. If they had the bank backing to pay in reasonable installments and tacked on percentage of Tevez' next transfer fee going to City that would have been some tidy business for Manchester City.

Barcelona's (verified) twitter account has announced the signing of Alexis Sanchez pending his medical. €26 million with additional clauses worth up to another €11.5 million. I thought Udinses were holding out for €40 million.

Apparently, Carlos was just wandering along a beach in Sardinia, as you do, and bumped into one of the directors of Inter Milan. Small world, isn't it ?

So basically he doesn't miss his wife and kids that much, eh ?

Sneijder plus Eto'o and you can have the lying bastard, and his greasy agent for free.

Roke wrote:

Barcelona's (verified) twitter account has announced the signing of Alexis Sanchez pending his medical. €26 million with additional clauses worth up to another €11.5 million. I thought Udinses were holding out for €40 million.

that is €40 million in the new transfer world. Partly why Arsenal are laughing at Barca over the Cesc stuff.

Under contract till 2015 and they make a lower offer then last year?

We all know hes going maybe this year maybe next maybe the one after? but it will only happen when Barca stumps up the serious money.

Hopefully the Sanchez move helps other stuff get settled. This year has been agonizing to say the least.

Barcelona have debts approaching €400m. OK they have signed a kit deal with some bogus 'charitable foundation' from Qatar, but do you think they are going to be splashing out another €30m or so on Cesc, unless they are going to be selling someone ?

davet010 wrote:

Barcelona have debts approaching €400m. OK they have signed a kit deal with some bogus 'charitable foundation' from Qatar, but do you think they are going to be splashing out another €30m or so on Cesc, unless they are going to be selling someone ?

No and thats why hes not actually going. The entire team and mayor have spent the last month unsettling him in an attempt to drive the price down.

Problem is hes actually a professional and wont force himself at 50cents on the dollar cause Barca cant run their finances. Its not he Nasri situation at all. Maybe if his contract expired in say 2013.... but no its 2015.

I cant see Wenger being held ransom over this or Cesc willing to stab Arsenal in the back to go ride the bench behind Xavi 1-2 years to early.

Arsenal have also been given a boost in their bid to sign Juan Mata from Valencia after the winger said he may leave the Spanish club this summer. He's theirs for £20m. Hmmm. £20m. Twenty million. Twenty. Million. Pounds. Seems a lot of money to spend when Carlos Vela is banging them in against Hangzhou Greentown in pre-season. £20m! No one rips off Arsenal like that. Valencia will be trying to hawk them a magnetic table tennis set next.
Anyway, for that sort of money you'd be wanting someone really special, like Stewart Downing.

I do like the new measure of player quality as "X Andy Carroll"s.

via sid lowe from twitter.

IMAGE(http://www.kckrs.com/wp-content/uploads/gowank.jpg)

love the broken english as it was the Arsenal Chinese fans that put that up during the tour.

Nice to see the 'ultras' of FC Corporate Munich are welcoming their new goalkeeper.

A group of Bayern Munich ultra supporters have issued a 'code of conduct' to recent signing Manuel Neuer.

Officials for the club and a group of supporters’ representatives had held round table talks earlier this month concerning the player, who had spent 20 years at rival club Schalke 04.

As a result of this, both sides reached an agreement that in the future, all official fan clubs and Ultra representatives who were present at the talks will regard Manuel Neuer as a full member of the FC Bayern Munich team, and he should be treated with due respect.

However, a faction of the German giants ultra fans have issued a code of conduct which the expect the 25-year-old to comply with while he is with the club, according to Sport Bild.

The rules are reportedly as follows:

1) Neuer must never simulate or initiate the team's megaphone chants.

2) Neuer must not kneel before the team and sing the 'Humba' song.

3) Neuer is prohibited from approaching the South Stand [where the Ultras sit] fence.

4) Neuer should not throw his shirt into the South Stand.

5) Neuer may not kiss the Bavarian crest.

The German 'keeper told Bild this month: "I am professional footballer and I have a job to do and so it's not good to focus on trivial matters.

"There have been some extreme moments over the past few months, but this is just all an experience for me."

Bayern teammate Phillip Lahm has leapt to the defence of the player following the publishing of the code:

"Nobody within the squad can understand the reasons behind the hostile protests against Manuel Neuer," said the German international.

"By protesting against Manuel Neuer they are really protesting against the team as a whole."

Yeah, Jo was good in preseason games as well.

Ahhhh. Enjoying twitter, it makes me laugh.

Arsenal Arsenal.com
ARSENAL SUBSTITUTION: Gervinho comes off after scoring two goals in 29 minutes. Ryo Miyaichi comes on.Cologne 0-2 Arsenal
50 minutes ago

arseblog arseblog
Being told Man City have made a £97m bid for Gervinho.
47 minutes ago

commbot comm bot
by arseblog@
@arseblog Barca counter-bids with 3 million
45 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

http://arsenalist.com/video/?id=xk32dp

http://arsenalist.com/video/?id=xk32dp

davet010 wrote:

Yeah, Jo was good in preseason games as well.

awww City was the butt end of a joke. Don't worry the funny part was the Barca chirp.

Find YouTube highlights for that game: forget Gervinho, Carl Jenkinson just scored one of most exquisite goals you will see.

Hehe, City playing LA Galaxy, already 1-0 up against a very poor side (Beckham staying well out of anyone's way in case he gets launched). Mad Mario gets a one-on-one, decides to spin round and attempt to backheel it in...and doesn't.

Mancini drags him off after 29 minutes. Quite right too.

Still, when he does that in the CL final and it goes in, we'll all be chuckling about it, but no need to go showboating against a load of American second-raters (and a cockney {ableist slur}).

On further review (god bless snide streams !) I think Balo reckoned he was whistled offside and was arsing about.

Aguero tweeted hes in Manchester to finish his move to City.

Saw him live at the u20's and hes amazing but not sure if he can hack it in the Prem League.

Mate, if he can hack it at the world's biggest crisis club (Atletico), who spend every summer deconstructing themselves in order to piss their fans off even more, then he'll be right.

Plus his father-in-law is Diego Maradona...imagine the nuts it took to wander in to see him and ask for his daughter's hand ?

Proof, if any required, that British sports journalists are completely lacking in knowledge of the sports they are meant to be covering.

From the twitter of Oliver Holt, senior sports journalist on the Daily Mirror.

"Aguero will be highest profile signing of summer so far if it happens. Still think Charlie Adam to Liverpool could be best though".

Oh, be still my sides.